I was recently inspired by an exhibit at the Start “A Garden Party to Make a Difference” festival, showcasing ideas for creating vertical gardens from easilyÂ found materials:

In the example on the left, empty milk bottles are filled with soil and planted with greens. They are attached to a framework, and connected to each other by rubber tubing, which allows water to drip from the top down, into a tank at the bottom, from where it can be pumped back to the top. The example on the right is similar, with gutters being used as planters. NOTE: Don’t use copper gutters for growing food, or the vinyl coated ones, Â as these can be toxic! Please research this before selecting your materials to plant into!

Here, an old door has had holes made in it, just big enough to fit yoghurt pots into! Makes for a beautiful stand for the pots, and I’m sure helps to keep the slugs away!

We want to create something similar at the Vida Walsh gardens, to maximise the growing area in the small space available.